Blood and Chocolate
by AlexMontgomery
Summary: To Kijo, the beautiful, charismatic vampires of the Night Class were much more terrifying, than the mindless vampires. As far as she knows, she's a coward who can only stand idly by as the boy she loves the most struggles to keep himself sane. Many secrets are stained in blood, some more dangerous than most. ZeroOC, OCOC, KanameYuuki


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Vampire Knight, anything assosiated to Hino Matsuri, or the novel by Annette Curtis Klause where I sort of got the title from.

* * *

**Chapter One  
****When the Monsters Are Real**

"Mommy!" the little girl called as she hurried through the twilit streets. "Mom!"

Her mother Kyoko never returned for her. She left her outside the bakery earlier that afternoon. She just said she would be gone for a few minutes. It was getting dark, and she never returned for her.

Maybe she could walk home, she was pretty sure she could. She knew the way. She had been to and from the bakery plenty of times. She was just, never on her own at this hour.

The shops were closed, and the shoppers were probably at their homes. The little girl was all alone at the moment. She hugged her jacket closer to her, it was getting colder, and it was getting darker out. Just a little more, just a little…

A man walked out of one of the taverns. He was tall, much taller than the seven-year-old girl, with a dark coat on. "Excuse me," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you lost?"

"N-No…" she said. "I'm just…"

Even in the dim light, she could see the smirk. There was a flash of fangs before the man sunk his teeth into her neck. The little girl stood, stunned, and confused. No, no. This man couldn't be… They didn't exist. They were only stories.

The man's body suddenly twitched. He removed himself from the little girl. One hand around this throat, the other squeezing her shoulder. It was like he couldn't breath, but weren't … _they_ undead? What did they need to breath for?

She panicked when the man suddenly disinitraged into dust. She back up, and collided into another body. "Feeding off a defenseless child," she heard. It was a boy's voice, probably not much older than herself. "Do none of them have any sense of decency?"

"I'm sure some of them do," an older said. The girl walked up the little girl and inspected her bite wounds. "They look kind of deep, but she'll live." She let out an irritable sigh. "What was Kyoko thinking?"

"Who knows," the boy said, placing an arm behind the little girl's back, and the over under her knees. He lifted her up, carrying her in his arms. "You remember where Shinkuso lives?"

The boy's sister nodded. "Follow me," she said, going ahead of the boy and little girl.

He ran after her. The little girl felt like she was being rocked side to side. With the swaying, mixed with blood loss, she blacked out.

_**Eight Years Later**_

"Alright, back up! No pushing!" Kijo shouted. Her hand held her brown baker boy cap on. "Damn it, I said back up!"

"Hurry up and move it!"

"Don't push!"

Kijo was pushed back by the growing group of girls, increasing her anger and frustration. It was the same thing every day. The gate at the Moon Dorms was crowded by high school girls every day at twilight. _Where is he?!_

"Alright!" someone shouted from over head. A brown haired girl in the Cross Academy girl's uniform, like every other girl there, stood on the stone gate. "It's past curfew, everybody just head back to your dorms!"

"Don't get so bossy just because you're the headmasters daughter!" someone shouted.

The red haired girl clenched her teeth in anger. Kijo _liked_ to think she was level headed, she _liked_ to think she defied redhead stereotypes that they had bad tempers. But, these girls had a habit of bringing out the worst in her. "Will you just get back to your dorms already?!" Kijo snapped.

"Don't act all innocent, Shinkuso!"

"Yeah, I'll bet Disciplinary Committee's just hogging the Night Class to themselves!"

"Oh, get _real_!" Kijo snapped back.

The Disciplinary Committee really was a thankless job. And what really sucked about it is that there was only Kijo, and her friend, the brown haired girl, Yuuki, working on the Committee. Well, no, that's not fully true, there was a third person on the Committee. He was late. Again.

The double doors of the gate creaked open, prompting an ecstatic gasp from the girls. Kijo and Yuuki attempted to push the Day Class girls back, but it was far too late. The Night Class were on their way to the school. The doors swung open, and the girls were suddenly on their very best behavior. Standing in two straight lines to allow the Night Class by.

At Cross Academy Privet School, the students were divided up into two separate classes. The Day Class, and the Night Class, they were as the names implied. Both classes were essentially given the same uniform, though they were inverted between the two classes. One of the biggest difference between the two classes, was that the Night Class were an elite group of students.

And they were all very, very beautiful.

"Good morning ladies!" Hanabusa Aidou said, just soaking in the attention. "Still as pretty as ever, I see!" Kijo heard that he was some kind of 'boy genius' when the Night Class was first established. But, she also found that action's spoke louder than words.

"KYAAH!" the Day Class girls chorused, then suddenly stampeded after the Night Class.

"HEY!" Kijo shouted, pushing against the girl. It wouldn't have been the first time she had been trampled because of this job. But, she wasn't going to stick around and wait for it to be fatal. "All right, all right! You've seen them, now get back to your dorms!"

Someone's leg must have bashed into her own, throwing her off balance. Kijo nearly fell over when she felt a couple of arms long around her underarms, preventing her fall. She looked up to see the pretty face of a black haired girl with red-brown eyes, in the Night Class uniform. "Are you alright, Shinkuso-san?" asked the girl.

"Y-Yes," Kijo quickly scrambled to her feet. She pulled the visor of her cap over her eyes to avoid eye contact. "Thank you, Shinseichi-senpai… I should be getting back to work…"

Each member of the Night Class were beautiful, and high class. As far as the Day Class knew, they were each of old money, socialites. From the outside, they just seemed so goddamn _perfect!_ But that never seemed to cross anyone else's mind.

"Mihika," a boy, Ronin said, glancing over her shoulder. Whether or not they were actually twins was unknown to Kijo. But, it was painfully obvious at first glance that they were siblings. Now that Kijo really thought about it, where those two ever apart? "Come on, don't want to be late."

"I'm coming," Mihika sighed.

The redhead watched the siblings walk off. She was pretty sure she met them once when she was a child. For the longest time, Kijo thought she was dreaming, or rather, she convinced herself it was a dream. Then the Night Class was established, and the Shinseichi siblings were amongst the numbers.

It wasn't a dream. Kijo really was saved by them. Though, she kind of doubted they remembered.

She looked over her shoulder, to find Yuuki speaking with the Night Class' dorm president, Kaname Kuran. Tall, dark haired, with a bizarre combination of intimidating, and gentleness. Kijo knew Yuuki and Kuran had a history together, some of which she didn't fully understand. But she knew he wouldn't do anything to cause her harm.

The Night Class were known as an elite, high class group of students, who just so happened to be good-looking. That was the beautiful lie offered by Cross Academy to hide it's secret. A secret only known by the Disciplinary Committee and the Headmaster.

The Night Class was made up entirely of vampires.

Kuran's hand was on Yuuki's head in an affectionate manner when a second hand forced Kuran off. A tall boy with silver hair and lilac eyes stood behind Yuuki. "About time!" Kijo muttered irritably.

"Class is starting, Kuran," Zero informed him, with his classic, rough around the edges way.

Kuran forced his hand out of Zero's grip, and continued towards the school with the rest of the Night Class. He turned his back to Zero. "You're scaring me, Mr. Disciplinary Committee," he said mockingly.

Kijo watched as the last of the Night Class filed into the school. She could see why the girls behaved the way they did around the Night Class, and it wasn't as thought girls didn't have their own legion of fans, abet smaller. Of course, at the end of the day, it didn't make the Day Class' screaming any less annoying after hearing it on a daily basis.

"Listen up, brats!" Zero shouted as soon as the door closed. "Why do I have to deal with you running around screaming 'kyaah, kyaah, kyaah' every damn day?!"

The girls ran off, crying out in fear. Kijo couldn't help but put on a goofy-grin. She and Yuuki may have sucked at their job, but Zero had a better job getting them to behave. That still didn't excuse him from being late again. "You were late again!" Yuuki yelled, punching him in the arm repeatedly. "Jerk! Kijo and I were stuck doing all the work again!"

"Will both of you shut up!" Kijo yelled. Her fingers were plugged into her ears. "You're giving me a headache!"

"I didn't say anything," Zero retorted.

"Too bad, you were late again?"

"What does that have to do with it?"

"You know we'd get through this a lot easier if you just showed up in time!" Yuuki added.

"Stop bouncing between subjects!"

Their argument continued as they headed to the Headmaster's office.

"_Mom," eight-year-old Kijo called as she entered the house. "Mom, I'm home!"_

_She removed her shoes, then hung up her coat, and bag. Still, there was no response from Kyoko. "Mom?" Kijo called again._

_Kyoko should have been there. She got off work a good twenty minutes before Kijo returned from school. And there wasn't a note, so she should have been there. Kijo found her sprawled out on the couch, with three empty wine bottles beside her. "Mom!" Kijo exclaimed._

"_I could've had it all…" Kyoko droned, slightly slurred. "I could've had the prefect family… the husband… the wonderful child, and the career… Where'd my life go, eh? Where'd it go?"_

"_Mom," Kijo stepped forward cautiously. "You shouldn't be drinking like that. What if…"_

"_That's right," Kyoko stood up, clutching one of the bottles. "It went when I had that… when that _THING_ CAME OUT OF MY BODY!"_

_She threw the bottle in Kijo's direction at 'thing.' It missed Kijo, and hit the wall, revealing that it wasn't quite empty yet. Panicked, Kijo backed away, then headed up to her room as Kyoko continued screaming._

"This is ridiculous," Zero growled. He slammed his hands on the Headmaster's desk. "How can you possibly expect just the three of us to guard a whole bunch of bloodsuckers _and_ deal with the screaming idiots?!"

Headmaster Cross sat behind his desk, wrapped in a blanket and warm clothing with a hot beverage in his hands. "I admit that it's difficult to deal with every night," the Headmaster admitted.

"So find somebody else to help before this whole thing implodes!" Zero snapped before he gestured to Yuuki and Kijo. "These two are worse than useless!"

"I'm not taking that from someone who's late half the time and absent the rest!" Yuuki shot back.

"He has a point," Kijo admitted.

"Kijo!"

"Lookit how well we do on our own. We need more help."

"I'm afraid that's impossible," the Headmaster said, glancing up from his mug. "The role of Disciplinary Committee is crucial if the Day Class and Night Class are to co-exist peacefully. You three are the only one's I can trust. Besides, it's a thankless job with long hours, sleepless nights, and everyone hates you. No one else would take it."

"Who in their right minds would when you put it like that!" Kijo snapped.

"Now, I _know_ my adorable daughters and loving son won't let me down."

"You may have taken care of me," Zero growled. He drove his fist into the Headmaster's desk, successfully breaking it into pieces. "But I don't remember ever becoming your son!"

"You're so obsessed over details," murmured the Headmaster.

_Not to mention I don't remember taking your name…_ thought Kijo.

"Hey, Yuuki," Zero glanced over at the brunette. "You're his daughter, don't you have anything to say?"

"The Night Class seems to be getting along well with the others," Yuki said, scratching the back of her head. "I'm just happy to help!"

"Yuki, you're such a good girl!" the Headmaster gushed before going on an inspiring tangent about breaking the cycle of hatred between vampires and humans. How the youth of today could break the cycle, and the two species could come together. That was why the Night Class was started in the first place.

"I'm going on patrol," Zero grumbled as he headed towards the door. "This nuts all yours."

_Couldn't we at least have stricter rules about interaction between the Classes. You can't tell me every member of the Night Class is okay with all this,_ thought Kijo. She wouldn't say any of this out loud, however. After all, she never had any good ideas or suggestions.

"It's a shame, but I do understand why Kiryuu-kun feels the way he does," the Headmaster admitted, adjusting his glasses. "Even within the vampire community, there are evil creatures that prey upon humans. That's why I would be disastrous if the truth about the Night Class ever came out."

"Kaname would never do anything like that!" Yuki snapped, she slammed her hands onto the broken desk. "And there's plenty of other honest vampires just like him, too! They're pacifist!"

_You're so obvious, Yuki, _Kijo couldn't help but think.

With a sudden burst of energy, Yuuki ran to the open window, reassuring the Headmaster that everything was going to be okay. She leapt out the window, declaring that she was on patrol. It must have been nice to have that sort of firm belief in your cause. Kijo wanted to believe that co-existence was possible, but she didn't think it would happen anytime in their lifetime.

"Well, we can't all have bravado like that, can we Kijo?" the Headmaster smiled at her.

"I guess not," said Kijo. "Em… Headmaster, I was just wonder I'm old enough to-"

"Kijo," Kaien said gently, yet firmly. They had done this countless times before. "You know the answer. When you're older, but not now."

She lowered the visor of her cap over her eyes. Kijo knew as much, this wasn't the first time she asked the Headmaster this. He always gave her the same answer. It was always the same answer. But still… not knowing didn't hurt any less. She just wanted to know why.

Kijo put on a bright, but still very fake smile, she found that she was getting good at those with age. "Thank you, Headmaster," she said, hurrying to the door. "I'm heading out!"

_My… My mother may as well have abandoned me when I was nine. My father…? Dunno. He's not in any of my memories, and Mom never talked about him._

_Mother… _Kyoko_ wasn't really a mother. She was almost always drinking. When she wasn't drinking she was yelling at met, blaming me for her failed dreams. She hated me, no one needs to tell me otherwise. I could see it, she hated me, she regretted having me. All the evidence was there._

_Then, one day, when I was nine, brought met to Kaien Cross, and his daughter, Yuuki. Two complete strangers. I had never met them, and I'm sure Kyoko never met them either. Yet she signed over all rights to me. Legally, I am as much his daughter as Yuuki is, but I keep Kyoko's name. I can't really say why._

_That day when Kyoko left me, I reached out to her in one last time in a desperate attempt to get a motherly reaction from her. I wanted her to say, 'No. I'm not doing this. Kijo let's go home.' She slapped me away._

_Why?_

_That's all I want to know. I could never see Kyoko again, and be okay with it. I just want to know why. Why didn't she love me? _

_Why did she bother having me, if she didn't want me?_

"Kijo!" Naoki whispered, poking her friend in the side with her pencil. "Kijo, wake up!"

She was out cold, asleep on the desk. Her cap on the floor beside her text books. "Cross!" the teacher shouted at the sleeping Yuuki. "Good grief, nothing wakes that girl. Alright then, Kiryuu!"

"Uh…" one of the boy's raised his hand. "He's asleep, too, sensei."

Sensei muttered something under his breath. "Shinkuso!" he called

Naoki laughed weakly, as she scratched the back of her head. On the other side of the lecture hall, Yuuki's roommate managed to wake her by empty luck promises. Immediately Yuuki sprung to her feet. "It's time to chow down!"

Kijo snorted awake, blue eyes fluttering open. "What'd I miss?" she asked groggily.

"Most of class," Naoki retorted.

"You know," Sensei said, walking up to Yuuki. "Between you, Kiryuu, and Shinkuso the Disciplinary Committee must be quite taxing for you."

"No it's alright," Yuuki said with a laugh. "I can handle it."

"No!" Kijo sprung to her feet. Her jaw could have fallen straight to the floor with that.

_Idiot!_

"All three of you, extra class!" shouted Sensei.

The final bell rang a few hours later, Kijo's forehead was planted firmly against the desk as Naoki gathered her things together. "_Why_ does this keep happening?" Kijo asked, shoving her baker boy cap on.

"It wouldn't happen if you weren't always out so late," Naoki pointed out.

"Keep rubbing it in…"

"Extra classes with Cross and Kiryuu," Naoki said thoughtfully. She hugged her textbooks together, then smile. "Sucks to be you then."

"Hey!"

Naoki giggled and hurried out of the lecture hall after their classmates. Kijo knew very well that Naoki would be amongst the screaming Day Class girls as the gate during twilight hours. Naoki wasn't above fawning over the Night Class, from what Kijo could gather.

When she was finally released from extra class, Kijo was on patrol on the east side of the school. Removing her cap, Kijo leaned against a tree. Her hand went up to her neck where she was bitten as a child. If the legends held any truth to them, then she would have become a vampire herself.

She tried to fool herself for a few years that it was just a dream. After she passed out in Ronin's arms, she woke up the next morning in her bed. But the bite marks were there, it was really, really difficult to tell herself it was a dream.

When the Headmaster adopted her, and Yuuki introduced her to Kuran, it was painstakingly obvious, vampires existed. That night wasn't a dream, she was really bitten. But what happened after was harder to tell a dream from reality.

Kijo could still feel the bite sometimes. Sometimes on a calm night, sometimes when the weather changed. Though, Kijo couldn't tell if it was psychological thing or not. She never brought it up to Kyoko, or anyone else. She didn't wan to seem like she was crazy, and Kyoko probably would have ignored her. Even now, that she was guarding the school's secret that they were housing vampires, she only brought it up to one other person.

Inhaling, Kijo's blue eyes widened when she noticed a peculiar sent. A faint, metallic sent carried in the wind. "Blood!" she gasped.

Following the sent as best as she could, she found Yuuki with Hannabusa Aidou, and Akatsuki Kain. Two Day Class girls were passed out on the ground. Aidou had Yuuki by the wrist, biting into her palm while Kain stood idly by, like he was pretending it wasn't happening.

In a swift movement, Kijo brought out a collapsible white staff from under her skirt. Kali, name after a goddess of time, change, and destruction, was a white metal bo staff, not unlike Yuuki's Artemis. It was an anti-vampire weapon given to her by the Headmaster. Depending on how Kali was used, it could hurt vampires, or kill.

Kijo poked the end of Kali against Aidou's temple. "The school handbook clearly states; drinking blood on school grounds is strictly prohibited!" Kijo declared.

Aidou glanced at her with a red bloodlust in his eyes. "But, I want more," he said. His one once upbeat tone, was now low and dangerous.

In a flash of black, white and silver, a gun was pointed at Aidou's head with a click. Zero stood in front of Aidou with a gun that looked like a .45 caliber Colt M1911 in his hand. The Bloody Rose, an anti-vampire weapon that could deal more damage to vampires than Artemis or Kali could.

"She said it's not allowed," Zero said darkly. There was a gleam of hatred in his eyes directed at Aidou. "Getting drunk on the sent of blood… You've finally revealed you're true nature, vampire."

"Zero, don't! Yuuki shouted.

Kijo panicked. She didn't doubt for a second that Zero would fire and kill if necessary. But there would be problems if one of the Night Class students went missing. Especially one from a hoity-toity family.

Kali fall from Kijo's hand as the gun was fired. At the last minute Yuuki broke from of Aidou's grip, and directed Zero's arms at an angle as he fired. The gunshot was enough to scare Aidou out of his lustful state. The bullet hit the tree behind him, leaving a purple symbol containing magic that could harm or even kill vampires.

"Stupid, why'd you shoot?!" Yuuki snapped.

Kain stared at the symbol, as it slowly begin to disintegrate. He looked rather calm, if not a little confused. "What the…"

"That was the Bloody Rose gun, you should be more careful, Aidou. It was created to kill creatures like _us_."

All eye's looked up at the owner of the voice. Kuran walked up to them, then grabbed Aidou by the back of his collar. "I'll take care of this fool. The Headmaster will need a full report. Is that okay, Kiryuu?"

"Just get them out of my sight, Kuran," Zero said, sliding the gun into his coat.

Kijo collapsed Kali, and held it tight in her hand. Wonderful, something actually happens and she panics as soon as Zero pulls out the gun. It was the most that happened all year. Mostly a few girl's sneaking out after curfew. This was honestly the first time a vampire's acted out and bit someone.

Kuran took both Aidou and Kain for proper punishment. Kain was less he bit someone, and more he just stood there without stopping Aidou. The girls were returned to their dorms after their memories were altered.

With dawn getting closer, and the Night Class done for the night, Kijo and Yuuki ended up using the Headmaster's bathroom to wash up. She stood beside Yuuki as she ran her hairbrush through her damp hair. The damn thing got matted so easily. "You'd think the Headmaster would give us special dorm bathroom privileges," Kijo sighed.

"Why?" Yuuki asked, turning on the hairdryer. "He let's us use his."

"We'd be closer to the dorms that way."

"I don't mind a little exercise," Yuuki smiled at her.

_But I do after a long night, _thought Kijo.

The door suddenly slammed open. Zero walked in with a towel and a change of clothes tucked under his arm. Kijo, was far too tired to care. Yuuki on the other hand, "What're you doing here?!"

"Bite me!" Zero snapped back. "The dorm showers are closed until dawn!" He began to unbutton his shirt, then removed it. "It's not like I'd want to look at you anyway."

"Don't just come in here and start stripping!" Yuuki yelled. She grabbed Kijo's hairbrush, and hurtled it at him. "You're in the presents of a couple of girl's you know!"

Kijo glanced over at Yuuki. She wanted to say, _'He's probably thinking 'no you're not.'' _But, with the toothbrush in her mouth, and a mouth full of toothpaste, it came out as, "Heef perbily finkin 'neh yoor nuff.'"

She spat the stuff out as Zero sniffed Yuuki's hair, much to her discomfort. "I can't smell the blood anymore," he explained.

"Shut up! My hand stopped bleeding already." Yuuki snapped irritably. She clicked the hairdryer back on. "But if it's really like they say in the old legends, I might still turn into a vampire. Ten years ago I was nearly attacked by a rabid vampire. I wonder if my blood is really that delicious."

"Is that really something to be proud of?" Kijo asked. She began to gather her toiletries, and her used uniform. She placed her cap back on. "Given our line of work?"

"Probably not. But even if it is, I'll be more careful from now on. After all I'm one of the Day and Night Class guardians of Cross Academy! I can survive no matter how much of my blood vampires drink!"

The brunette looked up to find Zero headed to the showers, and Kijo headed out the room with her things in her arms. "Hey!"

Kijo hurried out of the Headmasters dwellings, hugging her things close to her chest. Sunlight leaked through the horizon, as the sky was light up with purples, and pinks. This was the life she lead. Maybe things could have been different if she was never attacked eight years ago. Maybe she wouldn't be protecting the school's secret if she wasn't already aware of vampires.

_Vampires. They're described in old legends as drinking human blood for survival. Here at Cross Academy vampires live and learn alongside the human Day Class. _

_The Shinseichi siblings, Mihika and Ronin rescued me from a vampire attack when I was seven. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure they brought me home. Maybe vampires and humans can coexist, but I don't think it will happen during my lifetime. _

_The Night Class may not be like the vampires who attacked me and Yuki. They aren't acting on instinct, not on a good day, at least. They think. They plan. They look like model students._

_As odd as it may sound, I prefer the mindless vampires to them._


End file.
